Cookie puss
Debussy’s “Children’s Corner Suite Paolo Spagnolo, piano Decca
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November 16th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
You know, I had a guy who cleaned out my chimney, look just like that. But I think his pants were checkered.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
The guy is a “Golliwog,” a very-not-PC doll that was a grotesque caricature of an African-American “minstrel” type. The last movement in Debussy’s “Children’s Corner” suite is “Golliwog’s Cakewalk,” intended to sound like ragtime. (Despite Debussy’s musical genius, he never quite managed to get the hang of ragtime.)
Golliwogs are antique-collectors’ curiosities now, but used to be commonplace, and Debussy’s daughter had one. Keep in mind that, while racist by today’s standards, it reflected a popular attitude, and many of the people whose children played with them would probably not have thought of themselves as racist. I guess a modern equivalent would be privileged suburban “white” kids who listen to rap and act like urban “gangsta” types — they’re perpetuating a negative stereotype even as they romanticize another culture. (And just as many “black” kids romanticize the “gangsta” lifestyle today, so many “blacks” probably had no problem with Golliwogs back in the day.)